


Hell In A Cell

by missxanon



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, M/M, More tags as necessary, Prison Break AU, coldflash - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-06 09:40:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4216809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missxanon/pseuds/missxanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coldflash Prison Break!AU<br/>Mick has been sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit. Leonard is going to break him out. Lisa is working against a vague yet menacing government agency on the outside to prove Mick's innocence.<br/>And Leonard's new cellmate? Well....he may become a problem.</p><p>[No need to watch Prison Break to understand this fic. Some elements of the story will remain the same while many will be changed as needed]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I talked about this a while ago on Tumblr and I'm finally getting around to posting the first chapter. A lot of planning went into this, especially mapping out the characters and their stories. I'm bringing in characters from Arrow and possibly some other DC sources if needed, so this isn't exclusively Flash, but that is they main focus. 
> 
> This is mostly an introduction to set up a kind of tone for the direction I'm going and the next chapter (which I've gotten about half done) will introduce the majority of the prisoners. 
> 
> This is unbeta'd, but I have read over it a couple of times; if you find any glaring mistakes, feel free to point them out and I'll fix them :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Leonard Snart sighed, checking to be sure he had everything he was going to need, though he knew it wasn’t necessary; he never forgot anything.

Over the previous twenty-four hours, he’d finalized his plan, destroyed all evidence he’d ever made it, and now he was making one last stop before he put his plan into action. He pushed the door to the tiny, dingy tattoo parlor, letting the bell above the door announce his presence. A woman appeared from the back, gold hair cascading over her shoulders and down her back.

  
“Decided to go blond again, sis?” he asked conversationally, as if small talk were the reason for his visit.

  
“Well, they do have more fun,” she replied, a sort of tightness in her tone only Len would ever be able to detect; “and, you know, I figure it’s time I had some fun after all that’s happened.”

  
A small silence hung between them, both knowing what was coming, but neither being particularly good at communicating feelings. In the end, Len stepped forward, pulling Lisa in for a tight hug.

  
“Do good,” she breathed in his ear, her voice wavering and threatening to give out.

  
“I will,” he responded coolly before letting go and walking back out the door. He never was one for drawn out good-byes; Lisa understood.

  
He made his way away from her shop and to the federal bank five blocks away. He pushed open the large glass door and walked through the lobby, checking the time. Noon exactly, just as he’d planned. Standing in the middle of the lobby, he pulled out the gun he’d stuffed in his waistband and shot at the ceiling. There were screams as people dropped to the floor along with a fair bit of plaster from the ceiling. He let the silence stretch on for a few moments before he launched into his speech. This was his favorite part of this particular job, playing the clichéd bank robber perpetrating an old fashioned stick up.

  
“Everyone stay on the floor and keep quiet and no one will get hurt,” he announced, making his way to a teller’s window; “except for you, darling. You get up here and help me out.”

  
The woman rose slowly up into her chair, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane and not meeting his eye. He shoved his bag at her and barked an order. “Put all you’ve got in there!”

  
He didn’t miss her pressing the panic button under the counter, but he didn’t react. All according to plan. Besides, what would it hurt to let her think she got one over on a crook? Len was a giver like that. When she was finished stuffing the bag, they still had nearly two minutes before the cops would arrive, so he had to think fast.

  
“What about in the vault? I want that bag full!” he growled roughly.

  
“We don’t have access to that,” the woman said, her voice shaking as hard as the rest of her; “only the bank manager does, and he doesn’t return from lunch until after one.”

  
Of course, Len already knew that, but he needed to keep up the charade as long as possible.

  
“I don’t believe you,” he said lowly, a veiled threat in his tone.

  
“I-I swear!” the woman begged; “Please, I have children.”

Len was about to respond when the sound of sirens in the distance caught everyone’s attention. An audible sigh of relief swept throughout the bank and Len smirked.

“Looks like my ride’s here,” he said as a voice magnified by a megaphone broke through the quiet.

“Drop you weapons and put your hands in the air,” a stern sounding cop ordered from outside. Len raised his hands in the air, dropping his gun and staying completely still as police with guns stormed the building. He cooperated with every order they barked his way and was soon being put into the back of a police car.

“You’re taking this rather well,” his arresting officer whispered to him.

“A man’s gotta know when he’s caught, sir,” Len replied with a cheeky smirk.

“Whatever,” the officer grunted, pushing him down into the car.

~~~

Over the next few days he was kept in the county jail while he waited for his trial and sentencing. The days dragged on, but he refused to let his goal fall out of focus. He needed to save Mick. Other than Lisa, Mick was the closest thing to family he had in the world; something like an honorary brother, if any of them were the kind of people to need labels like that. They’d been doing jobs together for nearly fifteen years, stuck together even through the jobs that had gone bad, like the time Mick started a fire that nearly killed him and led to Len and Lisa having to take down an ambulance and then play doctor for nearly three months while he healed from third degree burns. At least it kept him out of prison though.

Then there was their last job. It should have been a simple in and out job. They were only stealing some documents from a laboratory so they could sell them to the highest bidder, but it all went south so quickly, Len didn’t have time to think before the police were there and Mick was being hauled away for murdering Martin Stein, some famous scientist who had won Nobel prizes in both chemistry and peace. Len never really paid attention to things like that, but he was reasonably sure that the man had made some breakthrough regarding replenishing of natural resources and saving the planet or some blah blah like that.

It hadn't taken a jury long at all to convict Mick, and then it was down to the sentencing and the moment the word death was spoken, Len felt his world falling down around him. Lisa collapsed into tears against him as a low murmur spread throughout the courtroom and Mick was led away in handcuffs. Len stood swiftly, hauling Lisa up with him and leaving the courtroom, rage coursing through him as an unfamiliar pressure built behind his eyes. How could Mick be so stupid? He knew the code; he knew they didn't kill innocent people or people who would be missed on a grand scale, and yet he’d gone a killed the most famous scientist alive. Len knew he would have to visit Mick if he wanted answers, and he needed to let Mick know how much this had destroyed Lisa and him, if only to make him carry that burden to his grave.

~~~

The prison was dingy and cold and gray as Len took his seat on the other side of the glass from Mick, who was dressed in a dark blue jumper and chained at the arms, feet, and waist.

“You broke the code,” Len began, his voice stiff and cold.

“I didn’t!” Mick growled, anger flashing like fire behind his eyes; “I was set up! The man was already dead when we got there, I just found him and then the next thing I knew, I was being arrested for his murder!”

Len rolled his eyes; "The evidence is all there Mick. They have video for fuck's sake!"

"You shut down the surveillance system Snart, or did you forget that? The video was fabricated," Mick countered, growing ever more angry.

Len had nothing he could say to that. He had shut off all the cameras; he knew he had because he never made mistakes, especially not a rookie one like that.

"How would they know to frame you like that? How would they know we'd be there?" he asked while his mind reeled as it started putting together pieces of a puzzle that wasn’t making sense.

How would anyone know they were there? Where had that video footage come from? And the thing that had been bothering him all along: how did the jury come to a death penalty verdict so fast? And why was the date set for only three months later when death row inmates usually spent a decade or more waiting for their sentence to be carried out?

"I don't know. None of it makes any sense to me, but that's what happened."

Len's usually cold and composed demeanor crumbled as he realized the weight of what Mick was saying. He was going to be publicly killed for someone else's crime. The sensation of tears building behind his eyes was something Len hadn’t experienced in a long time, and he almost didn’t recognize it as he blinked away the wetness.

“Look me in the eye and swear to me you didn’t kill that man,” Len demanded.

“I did not kill that man Len, I swear,” Mick growled, looking Len in the eye. Len knew he was telling the truth; Mick had lied to him enough in the past, Len knew the difference.

“I’m sorry Mick,” Len said, his composure returning, and then he left the prison, plans already taking form in his mind.

 

He would stop at nothing to save Mick’s life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet the crew!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I hate making excuses, but life has been wild lately and this part has been giving me trouble (more on that in the end notes). This isn't even the entirety of what this chapter was originally going to be, but I split it in two so that a) I could get something out because it's been so long and b) It flows better if I end it here.

Checking into prison was nothing new to Len. The first thing he had to do was fill out the paperwork that pried into every detail of his life.He was stripped down, searched head to toe,in and out, and then he was thrown a set of clothes that were nowhere near his size. He couldn't help but smirk at the familiarity of it all, which unfortunately caused him to catch the eye of the CO.  
  
"What's so funny, con?" the officer, a quick glance at his badge revealing his name to be Eiling, asked as he puffed himself up to look more threatening. It didn't really work, he was so old, so fat, so worn down looking, that no increase in bulk or height could help him.  
  
"Nothing sir, just enjoying the way I look in this jumpsuit," he said, keeping his head down and his expression and tone neutral.  
  
"You a smart ass, Snart?” Eiling asked, his eyes narrowing.  
  
"No sir, I'm just here to serve my time; keep my head down and my nose clean, fly under the radar” Len replied, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice.  
  
“That doesn't happen around here,” Eiling sneered, and the glint in his eyes unsettled something deep inside Len. He’d have to keep an eye out for this guy.  
  
“Noted,” Len said as he moved on with the remainder of checking.  
  
Getting his pillows and blankets and cell assignment, he was thrown into a cell with a kid who couldn’t be older than 25.  


 

* * *

 

"The view doesn’t change,” Len's cellmate, Barry Allen he’d introduced himself enthusiastically, remarked from his spot on the top bunk; "Might as well sit down before you attract any unwanted attention."  
  
Len ignored him. He needed to get a read on the people he was dealing with, and he couldn't do that sitting on his bunk. From his spot he could see into nearly every cell across the hall; most of the inmates were common, garden variety criminals who’d gotten lucky on a job and seemed to be an actual threat far above their actual abilities. Then there were those that deserved the credit for being put in the most secure prison in the world. Across the hall, up a level, and to the right there was Oliver Queen, the heir to the famous Queen family that had made their fortune in steel before the market crashed and the patriarch had killed himself in its wake, leaving Oliver to try and pick up the pieces. The family had done okay for a while, living off their reserves of savings and trust funds, but the Queen family had rich tastes, and the money ran out within two years. To help his family get back on their feet, Oliver started doing odd jobs for a local mob; transporting and selling drugs, shaking down people who disrespected the family by not paying their tariffs, and the like. However, the kid found that getting into the mob business was the easy part. Before long, he'd graduated to a full-fledged member and his family was doing better than ever, but Oliver was losing himself to the mob and his mother and sister were too busy enjoying their new social statuses to notice. Within five years, Oliver had made his way to being the right hand man of the boss himself and was all but running the family until he was betrayed by his own right hand man, Slade, who sold him out to the cops in order to avoid punishment. Oliver was sent to Iron Heights and Slade was put into the witness protection program, facing no real punishment for his own crimes and no chance of the mob ever finding him. However, Len had found him, and he planned to use that to his advantage.  
A few down from him was Floyd Lawton, a man who was busted as a hired assassin for wealthy mob families and whose victims list included an astounding number of children, each of their names self-tattooed into his skin, since incarceration, he had earned himself a reputation for acquiring the prettiest cell mates and hanging sheets at night. Above them was John ‘Dig’ Diggle, who’d been sent home from the military with a dishonorable discharge for smuggling, and then was busted two weeks later transporting contraband, inside the prison he’d earned a reputation for being able to get his hands on anything anyone wanted; he’d be invaluable to Len.  
  
Len couldn’t see him, but five cells down to the right was an aging man named Harrison Wells who was serving time for the vague crime of ‘robbery’. Len had put in some time and effort into verifying that this man was, in fact, Eobard Thawne, a man who had successfully stolen more than five million dollars and hidden it before he was arrested and sentenced to life, and Len needed the man’s money for his plan to work.  
  
All of Len’s pieces were lined up on the board, now all he needed was move them into position and execute his plan. Simple as that. Except now there was an extra piece, one he didn’t count on, and he couldn’t figure out what to do about him.

“So, what’cha, in for?” his cellmate asked as Len drifted away from the cell door and laid back roughly on his bed; “not that you have to tell me or anything. I just thought since we were cellmates now and all, it’d be nice to get to know each other. I could go first if you want, or you could go, or we could sit in silence,” he rambled, speeding past himself and then stumbling to backtrack.  
“Stop,” Len said, holding back the amusement from his voice; “I robbed a bank."  
  
Barry’s face appeared over the side of his bunk, his eyes wide with wonder and maybe a little disapproval. Hypocrite.  
  
“Wow. All I did was rob a liquor store…a couple of times…with a gun. It wasn’t for the money though. Not really anyway. It was for a girl. I just wanted to show her a good time, but working part time and going to school doesn’t leave a lot of money. I only took what I needed mind you. I wasn’t out to hurt anybody. I just wanted to give her a good time and get her a nice ring. But then police showed up and arrested me and now I’m six months into a five year sentence. But I’m probably boring you. You don’t care about all of this. What were you going to do with the money?"  
  
Len couldn’t help it as his lips quirked up into a smile; “I hadn’t really planned that far ahead," he lied; "Maybe set myself and my sister up for life in Panama...or maybe Russia. I always did prefer the winter," he mused, almost getting lost in the day dream.  
  
"Panama seems nice. I don't know about Russia--the cold doesn't really agree with me and I don't speak Russia, so that'd be a problem," Barry commented. A few moments of silence hung between them, only interrupted by the sounds of the other prisoners around them, before Barry apparently felt the need to fill it.  
  
"So you have a sister huh?" he asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.  
  
"Yeah, she owns a small tattoo parlor in Central City. Brings in enough to pay the bills and allow her some minor comforts, but it would be nice to set her up so she wouldn’t have to worry about money or anything, she could just enjoy her art."  
  
"That's nice," Barry said wistfully, a far off look in his eyes.  
  
"What about you? Do you have any siblings?" Len asked; Barry seemed taken aback by the question, a light blush spreading over his cheeks as he ducked his head.  
  
"It's....complicated," he started and Len raised an eyebrow, prompting Barry to go farther with an interested 'oh?'; "When I was younger, my mother was murdered. It was a kind of break in gone wrong, but the police never believe me when I told them that. My father spent his life in here for her murder, he died about a year and a half before I got here. I probably should have gotten myself sent here sooner so I'd at least have been able to spend time with him. Anyway, this cop that was friends of the family took me in and raised me with his daughter. I loved her though...as more than a sister...I've always loved her, since the moment we met. I never thought she'd see me the same way, I always thought I'd just be like a brother to her, but I eventually found the nerve to ask her out and she said yes! Then one of my friends, Eddie, reminded me that I didn't have any sort of disposable income, but I had to make the date the best she'd ever been on. I couldn't blow my chances just because I had a shit job. So I robbed a liquor store. I only took what I needed, I didn't want to destroy the man's livelihood, but I had to get the money from somewhere. I didn't get caught...I don't think the man ever even called the police, and Iris and I had the best date. So I did it again, took her on a better date and better. After only three months we were inseparable and she was living with me, so I decided to propose....but I didn't have the money for the ring, so I went back to the liquor store to steal one last time, I swore to myself it would be the last time. The police showed up as I was leaving. The owner seemed rather confused, like it wasn't him who called them, but then I don't know who, I made sure the store and parking lot was empty. Anyway, then I was put in here for five years. I get out in eighteen months though..."  
  
Barry seemed to run out of steam after that, and Len didn't know what to say to it, so he didn't say anything. Barry disappeared back up onto his bunk and that was that for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience :)  
> The Oliver part gave me a ton of trouble and has probably been written and rewritten four or five times, so I hope it came out well. Also, I made Lawton the equivalent of T-Bag, but I couldn't go as far as to make _anyone_ that terrible, so I stuck more to the Deadshot assassin story, but with kids.  
>  Questions, comments, constructive criticism, and pointing out of mistakes are always appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought! 
> 
> Also, if you'd like to follow me on tumblr, you can find me at missxanony.tumblr.com


End file.
